Our Hero Academia: Chapter 16
VOL16OHA.jpg Thermostatic Complications Packing his school supplies back into his bag, Jirou made no conscious effort to be subtle about it, simply grabbing them by the handful and shoving them into it, crushing some papers and breaking multiple pencils upon doing so, clear signs that he was feeling tense. Rather than sit through Isan's lesson, Jirou simple vacated the class, refusing to waste any time whatsoever on anything that didn't involve the festival in two weeks. Initially signing up to spend the majority of his time at the Simulation Joint during school hours, Jirou couldn't help but feel his stomach churn and coil in knots, feeling his face flush the more he thought about what was going to happen. Slowing down to look at the school map written along the hallway, he paused to think, running the directions along his head before beginning to sprint the rest of the way there, hoping that it would in some way clear his head. Pulling out of a sheet of paper out of his pocket, page illustrated a list of days and hours listed across the front, with numerous numbers clumsily scatters all over the back, Two weeks, fourteen days in total, split it around 6 days each week, and we got around 5 or 6 six hours to practice if were talking about school hours, he calculated mentally as if to ingrain his new schedule into his head. Leaving the school doors from out the back, Jirou marched across the long road leading into the facility. Leaving class early, Ryuji made himself scarce in order to avoid being spotted by the teachers, hiding along the school walls as he stretched out to the window, jumping out and landing behind the brush of plants near the ground, sliding across the tree from the second floor. Now on the ground level, Ryuji could see that the field and front gate were vacant, not surprising since class was currently in session, leaving early under the pretense of training after having filled out his forms. On the other hand, he didn't have anyone to practice with, and the time frame itself was ridiculous in his opinion, "Two weeks and they expect me to give it my a-game, what a bad jok—," before he could scoff at notion, he took a closer glance at someone running at into school, and at the training facility no less. And upon closer look, it was Jirou, relieved and elated at the fact that it would be his lucky break to kill two birds with one stone, deciding to follow suite without him noticing by keeping a sizable distance behind him. Reaching the front doors, Jirou pressed his hands on the surface, pushing against it with his Quirk, pushing them in a quick burst, revealing a large stadium filled with numerous locations and environments situated across from each other, being greeted by a large staircase leading down to the plaza, connecting all the simulation rooms together, immediately filling him with some jitteriness. With Jirou opening the doors for him, they were closing off shortly afterwards, being some ways behind him that would ultimately close themselves before he could catch up. Ryuji bent down to know knee, waiting for him to pass through the gate before sprinting into the facility headfirst, Ryuji elevated the heat around the soles of his shoes, triggering small explosions that elevated his momentum, performing a small spin before grinding his heels into the ground, jumping into the dome directly above Jirou's head, sliding across the ground with his other hand. At the sudden sound of what he thought were bombs, Jirou turned over only to notice something swoop over his head, like some sort of cannon flying straight above, landing directly in front of of him in a cloud of rock and debris. At first glance, he could vaguely identify the shape or form of the intruder. With smoke clearing, a cold chill ran up his spine that both annoyed and surprised him with the sheer audacity of showing himself so early, "Ryuji," he remarked, letting the name sink in before bursting out in a violent fit, "the balls you have for showin' up now of all times." Crossing his arms indignantly, Jirou perched his head upwards, string his down with eyes, "Your'e either brave thinking to take me on now or stupid enough to try," he exclaimed, seeing as how they were both alone in this giant dome, without a single teacher or student present. Given their recent history, Jirou was inclined to return the favor from their first day, an act that he thought, would be something Ryuji would do if their roles were reversed. Raising his hands with a sarcastic gesture, Ryuji was grinning with his head turned away from Jirou, hiding his expression knowing full well that he would have to choose his words carefully. "Let's be frank, I saw the chance and I took it, tell me you wouldn't do the same in my shoes." Turning around slowly, Ryuji switched his demeanor to highlight a more calm and focused look, playing on his patience. Raising his hands even further, he clenched them into fists before puling out his index fingers, pulling them down in order to form a finger goalpost with both hands, "two", he declared with a impatient tone under his breathe, trying his best to hide thrill in his voice under a much calmer tune. "It takes two to tango, and one to get out of trouble." Snapping his fingers, Ryuji transitioned his gesture into a finger gun motion, pointing them at Jirou in a dramatic fashion, "I'll cut straight to the chase, the sport festivals in two weeks, and I'm looking for someone to lend me a hand. Lo and behold your're here, I'm sure you can put two and two together." Spitting at floor across from Ryuji, Jirou dismissed his proposition with a simple wave of his hand, his eyes circled squarely on the simulation rooms built some ways down the staircase ahead of him, ignoring the blue haired man by making his way down the steps. Following behind at the same pace, Ryuji tucked his hands into his pocket, walking down the staircase, with an awkward silence filling the space between them, something that, given the hard headed student, came to a surprise to Ryuji, knowing as the type to be loud and obnoxious. "Don't be an idiot, what are you gonna do, punch the air? I doubt wreaking shit really counts as actual training." Extending his leg out to block his path, his outward appearance now beginning to express a slight annoyance. "Be smart about this, there isn't a single person working on their own." Walking around him, although Ryuji couldn't see it, Jirou was pouting and frowning rather fiercely, a part of his acknowledging that he was right, that two were better than one, especially when the other guy could pump you up when it came to working out. Thinking of some way to work past this dilemma, some sort of workaround, the more he thought, the more it became evident that it wasn't a factor on whether or not that he didn't want a partner, but the fact being he needed one regardless of his own personal grievances with the man. The only silver lining in all of this was the simple fact that if it weren't for Ryuji on two separate occasions, he might've been suspended for fighting, for that at least, he would at most be able to tolerate him if it mean't getting somewhere these next two weeks. With a heavy sigh, Jirou backed up to his side, grimacing in defeat, "Ugh, fine. You happy know? But let's get one thing straight, I'm the one who chose to let you on board bro, not the other way around." Pointing to one of the large sections ahead, he led Ryuji to the first area in which they would train on the first day, making it a rule to alternate between the rooms each day for the next two weeks. Lord help me if I don't regret this later, a voice echoed from the back of his mind. ---- Changing into their PE clothes from their earlier classes, the two of them ventured into one of the large domes, being decorated with dark clouds on the outside while perfectly spherical in shape. Opening one of the doors, Ryuji was overwhelmed by a downpour of rain crashing down all over him, with the door nearly flinging him across the face from the hit by strong winds present here, amazed at the level of design used to simulate this kind of weather. With nothing but buildings surrounding them, Ryuji felt relatively calm in this environment, repositiong himself atop one of the edifices across from them with a quick burst from his legs. "Yo, I can't be the only one getting goosebumps here. Come on, fighting in this weather, it's got flare." Slamming the palms of his hands together, flames began to burst out across from them, extending around his arms and shoulders, with the rain evaporating around him before it could so much as touch him from the excessive heat. Taking a few swings, Jirou could feel the droplets of rain bang against his arms, releasing a consecutive string of jabs, before raising his hands up, feeling pumped up to the point of ignoring the cold temperature and wind brushing past him. Pounding his hands against one another, Jirou couldn't help but smile at where they were in, "I don't mind the dramatic scenery, just hyping it up ain't enough for me, hope that bark's got bite." Lowering his legs to ground level, Jirou pressed hard against the floor, releasing a small shockwave across the ground, jettisoning himself through the air, crashing directly into the floor below the roof where Ryuji was standing, rolling across the ground before lunging his hand against the ceiling, blasting through, causing the roof to collapse in on itself. The floor, crumbling beneath him, Ryuji took a small leap off the ledge, folding his hands together so as to overlap against one another. Building up the heat by rubbing them together, Ryuji expunged a body of flames away from his arms, removing the fire circling around his arms and upper torso, propelling himself away in the opposite direction in a similar fashion to a rocket while using the released flames to incinerate the area that Jirou was inhabiting. With the rain pouring down unto his attack, steam began to disperse around from them, masking his position after the fact. Pounding the ground with his foot, Jirou uplifted some of the flooring while hiding behind junks of the collapsing ceiling to shield himself from the heat, using the stone and rock to take most of the brunt of his attack, feeling the heat build up in the room he was in, with the majority of rubble scorched in the aftermath. Grabbing several junks of debris fro the wall, Jirou ripped a piece and lunged it over his head, looking for Ryuji who by the sight of it, was missing from the picture, hiding in the large body of steam currently surrounding the building. Running across to the other side of the room, Jirou ran shoulder-first into the wall, using his Quirk to build up energy, crashing straight through it and into the building next door, hopping unto the alley between them in order to look for him. Hiding behind the wall across from Jirou, Ryuji was bidding his time and waiting for an opening. Knowing full well about the physical difference between them, the depth between their technique and application however was where he overshadowed Jirou in, being exceptionally adept at flexing his Quirk in a variety of ways. Pressing his hand along the way, he began to rapidly heat the water and humidity stored inside the concrete, causing them to burst out into shards of chipped rock flying at him across the side, moving in with several side steps alongside the rock, extending his hand out to grab unto Jirou. With the loud boom, he caught a glimpse of flying projectiles charging ahead, taking one step back before using his left hand to block most of the projectiles, jumping backwards to reduce the impact they would have on him while simultaneously avoiding them from hitting him directly in the eyes, obscuring his vision momentarily. Not wanting to take any chances, Jirou swung his right arm out, releasing a violent wave of energy, "Ultra Wave", he muttered, delivering a shockwave that reverberated across the alleyway in an unstable manner, shattering the ground whilst concurrently damaging the walls to the point of cracking them in. With all the ruckus going on, Ryuji switched up his his tactics, stepping back by heating the air around the palm of his hand to the point of creating an explosion directly ahead of him, using the force of the detonation to push himself back, riding the momentum of Jirou's attack and his own blast to throw himself to the opposite end. Drifting across the wet floor, Ryuji made it across the open street, being more convenient to fight in an open space rather than risk him bringing the entire building down on his head. Panicking slightly after nearly being grabbed by Ryuji, he began to re-evaluate his options, spelling his end if by some chance he were to touch him, with the same being true if their roles were reversed. "All show and no go," he humphed, "At this point, all we're doing is playing tag bro." With the shaking ceasing from the within the alley, Jirou kicked off most of the debris obscuring his path, wreaking through the rubble before examining their surroundings, being a relatively unclosed, being fair game for the both of them. Ripping off a large portion of his own gym uniform, Jirou wrapped most of it around his hands hand, enveloping it to the point of forming multiple layers on top of them. From previous experiences, Jirou knew that with the smallest touch, Ryuji's Quirk would prove fatal after contact, even if he could connect a blow. At least this way, he could at most protect his hands after doing so. Banging his hands together, Jirou began to run head first, bolstering his speed to rush him from the side, kicking up water across the floor with his foot toward Ryuji's face, splashing him with significant force. "If this is tag, then the first one 'it' loses," at a closer glance, Ryuji was genuinely surprised at Jirou's wit, albeit simplistic in design. However, given how their Quirks function based on touch and contact, he wasn't entirely off that the one to land the first blow would undoubtedly have an advantage over the other. Heating up the temperature his body was emitting, Ryuji evaporated not only the water landing on his skin but with the addition of ambient rain, keeping his view clear and eyes fixed on Jirou. Marching his pace, Ryuji dashed to the side, heading off into the same direction as Jirou's attack with an open handed launch, grabbing unto his punch with the palm of his hand. At the touch, Ryuji turned up the heat as much as he could in the brief moment, setting the majority of his and and upper arm ablaze, with the flames raging up to the corner of his elbow. Feeling the heat brush his face, Jirou pushed through, using the quick exchange to boost the impact between his attack and Ryuji's palm, using the brief interaction to pass a substantial amount of his energy into his opponent's hand. After the collision, Jirou leaped away from him, creating a sizable gap between them for him to recover his footing, using the rain to put out the fire scorching across his arm. With what was now an ash pile of wrapping he had, he had numerous burns and blisters spread out along his forearm and shoulder, with his hand in general being relatively unscathed with the exception of numbing feeling along the tip of his fingers. Keeping his footing, he Ryuji made a stand, refusing to let up on the pressure by following up on his last attack with another assault following his last one. Pausing for a moment, Ryuji began to grip his wrist, his hand swelling and bruised to the point where some of his fingers numb and bent, surmising that at most his wrist, in addition to several fingers were broken, rendering it unusable. Even if it wasn't evident with the rain, Ryuji was beginning to sweat, half dizzily grinning before turning to face Jirou, "I know I said this already, but I'll say it again, you're the last person I'd want to tango with." Grasping unto his injured hand, Ryuji's spare began to radiate a white fog, with his surroundings starting to form ice around him, intentionally freezing his hand in order to numb the pain. Raising it his arm into the air, an intense breeze overtook their surroundings, with the street's surface being glossed over with solid ice, lowering the heat in the sky and converting all the rain into what was essentially snow. Taking a few steps forward, several spikes began to form, growing ever closer to his sparring partner. Exhaling a cloud of white fog, Ryuji ran his hand through his hair, "Between you and me, we're a bad match up," with a thrust, Ryuji dashed on the icy floor, driving his momentum forward whilst simultaneously paving a path of ice, coating the upper surface of his hand in block of ice while spreading his Quirk beneath Jirou's feet. With his legs frozen over, Jirou could feel himself chill down to the bones, with his body going limb ans stiff to move, slowing him down momentarily at the dramatic change in temperature. Bashing his hands against the ice covering the lower half of his legs, he could feel Ryuji getting closer, bringing the heat even further below. Breaking free, Jirou did his best to maneuver through the tundra-like flooring, slipping and gliding all over the place before striking the ground with his right hand, shattering it along with the concrete underneath it. However, he could feel his hand ache with a burning sensation, becoming more difficult to move under the cold air. "You weren't joking about earlier, I can't get close without something going wrong," with a quick nudge, he grabbed a chunk of asphalt from the ground, lunging it overhead at Ryuji. Decreasing the temperature even further around himself, Ryuji swung his arm at body of rock, slamming it away as it crumbled to pieces at his hands, becoming brittle to the changes he was making with his Quirk. Quickening his pace, he built an entirely new path of ice to overshadow the crumpled floor, leaping head-first into jirou, grabbing his left arm with the layer of ice he had over his own hand, steadily increasing in length and volume in anticipation of him using his Quirk to turn the tables. "Of course I didn't, our Quirks are polar opposites, what did you think would happen you you and I wen't at it," spreading the ice all across the entire left side, the air and water cooled, now completely engulfing the two at its center, ensuring that he had non place to run. Charging up his left hand with his Quirk, he made a lung toward Ryuji's hand, only to encounter a block of ice forming across from him, swallowing up his entire arm. With a repeated motion, Jirou kept punching a pulling it away, only to have the ice repeatedly build on the layer he had just destroyed, ultimately freezing his entire arm in solid ice. With Ryuji so close to him, he could feel the brunt of his freezing Quirk at full force, his entire frame numb. "I-I can't believe y-your number #6 you f-freakin' l-lunatic..." he stuttered with a shiver, "Let's c-call it quits for t-today bro." Just before he was going to land the finishing blow, Ryuji stopped mid-flight at Jirou's proposition, pausing momentarily before putting on a slack jawed grin, "Well...if you insist." Evening the heat and cold his body was emitting, Ryuji focused on increasing the ambient temperature, slowly bringing it up to thaw out the ice he had formed, reverting the landscape back to normal, with rain drizzling back on top of them. "So that was day 1, what else did you have in mind..." ----''10 days later...'' Working separately for the day, it had been one and half week since they started training together, with only a little less than a week left before the Sports Festival was to begin. Jirou was for most parts climbing up the rocky terrain in one of the other zone to the south, simulating a rocky, mountainous area, filled with cliffs that he was currently scaling, digging his fingers along the cliffside through his Quirk. Balancing the output his ability had on his fingers, he used the energy to ascend without outright breaking the rock he was touching, flexing the degree of control he had. Sweating at the constant need to restrain himself while at the same time exert just just enough force to sustain himself in place proved difficult with the level of control he had, being unaccustomed with so much extra work being pushed on top of simple just thrashing around as he normally would. Come on, keep going ''he thought, pushing himself more with physical effort rather than risk overexerting his power before getting to the edge of the cliff. By the time he had reached the top, Jirou dragged himself up, grasping at the earth as he broke chunks of rocky edge as he began to pant heavily, resting on his back before noticing a gale of wing thrust past him. Turning over to look ahead, he could feel his face being whipped by strong air currents emanating far ahead of him, something he wasn't expecting given the nature of zone's terrain. At a closer glance, it was coming from a source other than from the environment, appearing more like a cyclone spinning around the cliff. Wobbling back up, Jirou used his arms to shield his eyes, pushing through wall of wind pushing against him, nearly flinging him off the cliff. Peering through the wind tunnel, he could see that the source was none other than Ryuji. "Dude, since when da' hell could you make wind?!" he screamed, trying to get his voice above the wind. "As of right now. Amazing I know!" Screaming in the same manner to get the word across, Ryuji had both hands close by one another, with a miniature cyclone whirling in the middle of the two. On one part, his right hand was glowing with a red hue as air began to wave, while his left hand was frozen across the surface, creating a chilled air. At the center, Ryuji was mixing the hot and cold air together, elevating them to various degrees to the point of affecting his surroundings. Producing just enough heat energy to heat the air, causing it to rise while supporting it with freezing air to condense it, resulting in Ryuji producing his own flow of air, forming wind. Balancing the temperature to affect size and scale of wind, levitating slightly as he cupped his hand together, firing a torrent of air rippling through the rocky surface, slashing the ground in a spiraling motion. Separating them, Ryuji ran his fingers through his hair, turning to face Jirou, "It's like I thought, A new trick in two weeks, ''figures."